Science

At Hadrian Park in Science, we aim to encourage the development of skills and attitudes which include co-operation, curiosity, perseverance, open-mindedness and a respect for evidence. We will also try to encourage independence in thinking, responsibility and sensitivity to living and non-living environments as well as a willingness to tolerate uncertainty. We use a variety of teaching and learning styles in order to develop children’s knowledge, skills and understanding of the world through providing a curriculum which develops and extends the children’s scientific concepts. This will lead to children learning to work as scientists, planning and undertaking practical investigations.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage lessons are planned linked to the specific area of learning ‘Understanding the World’. Understanding of the World is about how children get to know about other people, the place where they live and about all aspects of the environment.

In the Revised Early Years Foundation Stage, Understanding the World is broken down into three aspects:

People and Communities

The World

Technology

Children’s progress and achievements are assessed against the Early Learning Goals at the end of Reception. The lessons planned are cross curricular within topic areas that are purposeful, interesting and enjoyable.

The National Curriculum for primary science aims to ensure that all pupils:

Develop scientific knowledge and conceptual understanding through the specific disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics.

Develop understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science through different types of science enquiries that help them to answer scientific questions about the world around them.

Are equipped with the scientific knowledge required to understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future.

We aim to develop skills of:

• Observation - Pupils will acquire information, find clues and discover things from using all their senses, paying careful attention to specific and relevant detail in investigation of things studied.

• Interpretation - Pupils will develop the ability to distinguish between relevant and non-relevant detail in an attempt to make sense of a study and make conclusions based only on evidence and tested facts.

• Hypothesising - Pupils will attempt to explain observations and relations and make predictions in terms of a principle or concept that can be tested.

• Questioning - Pupils will recognise what can be scientifically questioned and will ask questions that are relevant and able to be tested.

• Investigating - Pupils will be able to set up their own experiments to test their ideas, the important principle being, to develop fair testing and the identification and elimination of variables.

• Communicating - The pupils will communicate their findings in some form or other. It can either be verbal, pictorial or written.

Science also has good links within the community such as other primary schools in the local area through our North Tyneside Science cluster. Joint projects and learning takes place with other schools and outside agencies.

Staff at Hadrian Park know that good Science occurs when…

Questions arise naturally from experiments 'wow, how did that happen?' ' Why did that happen?' 'can we do it again?' 'Can we try...?'. This leads to further scientific inquiry.

Children are having fun! learning how to work scientifically, how to observe closely, and how to record their observations!

Children are being inquisitive and asking questions

Children are using Scientific words and concepts to describe and explain